Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi last week said his country is prepared to withdraw troops from
Somalia. In 2006 Ethiopia invaded Somalia to oust an Islamist militia and
re-install the transitional government. The withdrawal of Ethiopian troops has been a key demand of the Islamist
insurgents.

Rashid Abdi is an analyst with the Brussels-based
Interational Crisis Group (ICG).From
Nairobi, Kenya he told VOA’s Akwei Thompson that the Ethiopians are signaling
that they are frustrated with this constant infighting and that at some point
their patience will run out.

“The
recent comments made by both Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his foreign
minister that Ethiopia is “not going to stay any longer and wants to pull out”
– comes in the context of sort of a growing frustration within the Ethiopian
government,” Abdi said.

The ICG analyst said
the operation itself might be proving too costly for the Ethiopians.

“Also as
the prime minister himself indicated it’s very costly to maintain troops in
Somalia. Ethiopia is a poor nation with a massive population and can ill afford
that kind of financial commitment,” Abdi added.

Abdi
thinks Ethiopia is also discontent with the help it is getting from the
West.

“As the
prime minister said Ethiopia is a convenient horse which the West sometimes
rides and flogs,” he said.